Watercolor painting 5.5 inches x 7.5 inches $100 + shipping

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

I forgot to post this last watercolor landscape from my visit to San Luis Rey Mission. I painted this study on traditional cold press paper, not the plastic-like yupo that I had used on the previous mission studies, so it has more of an evident texture. It is really interesting to use different types of paper and see how they effect the look of your watercolors.

For those who are interested….About .com explains the different types of watercolor papers this way:

1. Machine-made watercolor papers come in three surfaces: rough, hot-pressed or HP, and cold-pressed (or NOT).
2. Rough watercolor paper has a prominent tooth, or textured surface. This creates a grainy effect as pools of water collect in the indentations in the paper.
3. Hot-pressed watercolor paper has a fine-grained, smooth surface, with almost no tooth. Paint dries very quickly on it. This makes it ideal for large, even washes of color.
4. Cold-pressed watercolor paper has a slightly textured surface, somewhere in between rough and hot-pressed paper. It’s the paper used most often by watercolor artists.

Watercolor painting 9 inches x 6 inches $100 + shipping

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

This is a quick plein air watercolor sketch of the entrance to the Mission San Luis Rey. I really wanted to paint in the interior courtyards, and while they would let me walk through them for the price of admission, if I wanted to paint them, I had to pay mucho bucks to join the “friends society”. I decided there was more than enough interesting architecture on the outside!

Watercolor painting 9 inches x 6 inches $100 + shipping

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

When we were in Carlsbad, California, I took an afternoon to visit the old Catholic mission there. It was built in 1798 and has been restored to very near its original condition. There are beautiful gardens outside and inside the mission and it made a perfect site for doing watercolor landscapes and architectural paintings. Like the previous post, I painted this quick study on yupo paper, a plastic-like paper that doesn’t allow the paint to sink in. The colors remain bright and vibrant. Perfect for a hot, sunny day!